The invention relates to a vehicle safety device for the protection of the feet of an occupant, in particular of a driver.
The feet of the occupant are exposed to high stresses in a frontal impact, because they can slip off from a pedal, can be stressed by the pedals moving into the footspace of the vehicle, or can be jammed between pedals and the so-called splashboard. The splashboard is a part of the vehicle floor which codetermines the footspace of the front occupants of the vehicle. It adjoins the substantially horizontal section of the vehicle floor and usually runs obliquely upwards toward the engine chamber. The splashboard is also known as the chamber wall. For protecting the occupant""s feet, in particular the feet of the driver, which are exposed to greater dangers, a foot gas bag is proposed, which is intended to partially fill the footspace in the case of an accident. In normal driving operation, the gas bag is not intended to project into the footspace, because it could be damaged, but is to emerge from its covering in the case of an accident. The accommodating of the gas bag under a wall which is able to be torn open is very costly and in addition the unfolding behavior is very difficult to determine in advance, with the pedals which stand in the way making the predeterminability additionally difficult.
The invention provides a vehicle safety device which is constructed more simply and the protective effect of which does not depend on several background conditions, such as the unfolding direction of a gas bag, for example. This is achieved in a vehicle safety device which comprises an adjusting device and a section of a floor of the vehicle in a region of the occupant""s feet. The section is a movable section and can be coupled with the adjusting device so as to be moved by the device relative to the feet. In contrast to a gas bag which must emerge from its covering, provision is made according to the invention that a section of the vehicle floor itself can be moved. The movement of the floor has the advantage that it can be moved along a given path, e.g. by means of a guide. The movable section of the vehicle floor is in addition a defined, usually rigid surface, in which also the danger does not exist that it deforms in an undefined manner on displacement. In addition, the danger does not exist that, as in a foot gas bag, it is destroyed by pointed heels, because the stable vehicle floor is the part of the safety device which has direct contact with the occupant""s shoes.
The movable section can be the splashboard section of the vehicle floor and/or the substantially horizontal section of the floor on which the feet or shoes of the occupant, more precisely his heels or the heels of the shoe, rest.
Preferably the movable section of the vehicle floor is provided with a double vehicle floor. The latter has a rigid outer floor part and a movable inner floor part.
Connecting levers between the floor parts can provide the path of movement of the inner floor part and, furthermore, can serve as deformation elements. Also, the movable floor part itself can of course be deformed in a predeterminable manner in the case of an accident.
In particular on the driver side, the movable vehicle floor is very effective. When the splashboard section is moved up to the pedals, in fact the pedal treads and the displaced section can substantially form one surface. The feet can thereby no longer come between the pedals and the splashboard section and also can no longer slip off from the pedals.
The embodiments of the invention operate by two different principles. The first principle makes provision that the adjusting device is constructed for normal driving operation and permits a reversible adjustment of the movable section for adaptation to the sitting position of the occupant. The adjusting device is therefore not triggered only in the case of an accident, but rather the vehicle floor, for example for a small occupant, is adjusted towards him, so that his footspace is smaller than for a large occupant. Through the adjustment of the horizontal section, for example the angular position between foot and lower leg can be optimized, which with a small occupant, owing to his sitting position, hitherto was always distinctly more unfavorable than with a large occupant. Small occupants in fact generally step very strongly from above onto the pedals and have to raise their heel if, for example, they wish to change between brake pedal and accelerator. The angle between the foot and the lower leg, in addition, is small, which increases the risk of injury. The second principle provides for a movement of a section of the vehicle floor in the case of an accident. It is important in particular here that the splashboard section is moved so far to the pedals that the feet can no longer be squeezed between the splashboard section and the pedals.
To supplement the above-mentioned first principle, an even better protective effect can be achieved when this safety device according to the invention is provided with adjustable pedals. The adjustable pedals are intended to make possible for normal driving operation a reversible displacement of the pedals to and away from the vehicle seat, so that the position of the pedals can be adapted to the occupant, his size or sitting position. The adjustability of the vehicle floor in combination with the adjustability of the pedals allows small and also very large occupants to optimize their sitting position. Hitherto, the pedals were the fixed point in the vehicle, to which the sitting position had to be oriented. This led not only to an unfavorable position of the legs and feet, but also of the upper body. Hitherto, small occupants in fact sit too close to the steering wheel, so that the unfolding steering wheel gas bag can form a potential danger. By the safety device according to the invention, the distance to the steering wheel can be optimized, because the pedals and also the vehicle floor are adapted to the sitting position, which is codetermined by the size of: the occupant. This also has the advantage that with pedals displaced in the direction toward the seat, together with the splashboard section, more space is available for the deformation of the front part of the vehicle, until parts penetrate into the footspace. The adjustment of the vehicle floor can take place manually, together with the adjustment of the seat, horizontally and/or vertically, mechanically or electrically. The pedals are preferably to be moved obliquely upwards in the direction toward the steering wheel, so that drivers of differing size always have the same angle between foot and lower leg.
For the above-mentioned second principle, it is advantageous if a linear drive (e.g. a conventional linear tensioner or a spring action) displaces the movable section.
Furthermore, however, it is also possible to provide a gas bag for example between the inner and outer floor part, which gas bag displaces the inner floor part.
The displacement of a section of the floor can go along with an uncoupling of the pedals, e.g. by the movable section uncoupling the pedals from their suspension or pulling off the pedals at the end of its adjusting path.